Under Obamacare, Can Insurance Companies Cancel Coverage If a Person Gets Sick? – NO

General Reference (not clearly pro or con)

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Section 2712, "Prohibition on Rescissions," page 13, signed into law on Mar. 23, 2010, available at the Library of Congress website, states:

"A group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage shall not rescind such plan or coverage with respect to an enrollee once the enrollee is covered under such plan or coverage involved, except that this section shall not apply to a covered individual who has performed an act or practice that constitutes fraud or makes an intentional misrepresentation of material fact as prohibited by the terms of the plan or coverage."

[Editor's Note: Based upon a neutral reading of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and bi-partisan third party analysis, this question seems to have a clear and obvious Con (no) answer, and ProCon.org has therefore presented the responses in a single column with no opposing perspective.]

CON (no)

Sabrina Corlette, JD, Research Professor at the Health Policy Institute at Georgetown University, stated the following in an American Cancer Society pamphlet "Insurance Market Reforms," available at the American Cancer Society website (accessed Sep. 25, 2012):

"PPACA prohibits all health plans, including grandfathered plans, from rescinding a health insurance policy once an enrollee is covered, unless the enrollee has committed fraud or made an 'intentional misrepresentation of material fact' in his or her application. Before PPACA was enacted, health plans could — and often did — rescind policies when an enrollee became sick, if he or she — or her employer — made an unintentional mistake in filling out the paperwork.

PPACA also requires plans, if they do rescind a policy, to provide a minimum 30 days' notice to the enrollee."

Mary Agnes Carey and Padmananda Rama, National Public Radio (NPR) reporters, stated in their July 28, 2012 article "Health Care Law Upheld: Now What?," available at www.npr.org:

"Health insurance providers can't cancel your coverage once you get sick – a practice known as 'rescission' –unless you committed fraud or intentionally withheld facts about your health when you applied for coverage."